Four favorite breads I make over and over

By 108 breads

Created 2014 Jan 6 - 00:50

From the first 40 of my 108 breads project, these four favorites [1]are ones I make frequently because they are good and easy. They are all sourdough recipes. These include a white bread, whole wheat, rye and spelt. The photo is of a gift, an apron with a personalized 108 breads logo. So excited.

Your loaves look absolutely beautiful :) I cant for the life of me get my loaves the nice and airy, maybe because since Denmark aparently will have no winter this year I didnt bother turning on the heat, so my kitchen is perma 18 deg C or so. Makes for poor leavening environment.

Anyway, might I make a little input. I find it offensive to "real" rye bread that you call a bread with ~25% rye for rye bread :p rye bread has at least 50% of the flour/grain composition as rye, in my opinion. What you have baked is a beautiful wheat bread with an addition of wholegrain rye to knock up the flavour a notch. Nothing wrong with that at all. But real rye bread consists of cracked rye grains, rye flour, and thats it ;)

Your "sandwich" breads (31 and 32) looks fantastic. Will try them, soon. Just bought myself a wooden bread "tin" for baking wet doughs with long rise times. I look forward to trying it out :)

I admit to being hesitant to use too much rye as a percentage of the total flour. I want an airy bread and I have not yet experimented with heavier breads. For better or for worse, the comfort food of my childhood included a New York Jewish bakery rye bread, which was probably not made with much rye at all and got much of its flavor from the caraway seeds.

As for your temperature in Denmark, let me first address your dark winter. I know it is difficult when you get so little light during the winter months. I wish you some sunshine and brightness. The temperature in my kitchen is cool all winter. This is actually good for the breads because it allows for a longer rise. I actually find it more inconvenient during our long, hot summers. Though I personally enjoy the heat, it wreaks havoc on dough. I have to use a small fraction of starter that I use during the winter in order to have the same long rise.